Embattled mother

Most of us who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s (when English and Hindi had not encroached upon each other's territories) and were interested in Hindi literature, read the works of Gaura Pant, who wrote under the pseudonym of Shivani.

Something about her works touched the reader deeply, maybe the deeply emotional interaction between her characters and a fierce independence that made her female protagonists stand out.

Looking back, one can discern in them the seeds of feminist writing in Hindi. At the time, one wanted to know more about her but there were no biographies as she was not one of the 'prescribed' authors at school or college, nor did she ever seek publicity for herself or her works.

Four decades later, a few years after she passed away, her daughter Ira Pande has written her biography. This is not the run of the mill biography that bores one to death, but a biography-novel, a genre that combines the features of both and manages to make its protagonists come alive and be seen in the context of her works.

In the Prologue to Diddi, Ira Pande attempts to describe her relationship with her mother, which according to her was always "somewhat ambivalent".

To quote: "More than a mother she was for us a difficult sibling, an eccentric, much older sister who belonged to a different generation."

This suggests something different from the usual mother-daughter relationship, but a close and strong one nevertheless, one that survived the death of her mother.

As Pande puts it, "After her death, it seemed to me as if she had lodged herself in my head because I could hear her voice more clearly than I have heard her when she was alive." These voices find their way into the book.

This is not just the story of a spunky woman whose high spirits refused to be curbed by social taboos, adversities or anything that came in her way.

At a time when women were supposed to be neither seen nor heard, especially in the closed Kumaoni society of Almora, she lived life on her own terms.

From her childhood she lived in a world that was split by polarities""an austere Brahmin grandfather and an English-educated father, who felt more at home in his club than anywhere else.

Diddi's father decided to send her to Shantiniketan, the famous educational institution set up by Rabindranath Tagore around then as an alternative to the so-called "Macaulayan system of education" created by the British Empire in India (and which persists even today) for the almost singleminded purpose of churning out clerks mechanically who could fit neatly into the imperial frame of governance.

For her part, Diddi was pleased to be at Santiniketan, a place that she loved for its natural environs and open learning system. Pande tells the reader how deeply Santiniketan influenced Diddi, and how quickly she picked up Bangla and wrote her first story in that language.

She adds that there was something "inspirational" about Tagore's relationship with his students which others find difficult to understand. This brought out the best in them and they retained fond memories of the place for the rest of their lives.

To quote from the book, "Till the end, Diddi's face would light up at the mere mention of Santiniketan and a part of her remained forever the child she was when she first met Tagore."

As one reads Diddi, one gets an insight into a lot of things simultaneously. Her marriage to a person who was absolutely different and still cherished fond memories of his first wife who had died of TB, and the strong bond which sustained their tempestuous relationship.

What a discriminating reader finds of interest is the way in which the ups and downs of her marital relationship are fictionally interpreted in her stories.

The final chapter, in which Pande talks about her mother's passing away, is superb. It is packed with emotion, yet not mushy. Indeed, it is very difficult to talk about the passing away of someone so close to you, but Ira Pande has done it, and done so with a sense of grace and elegance that leaves an impression. She ends the book with the story of Pootonwali ("the woman with sons"), an ironical comment on self-centredness in society today.

DIDDI
MY MOTHER'S VOICE

Ira Pande
Penguin
Price: Rs 250; Pages: viii+216